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Every few days I’m posting five passages that have jumped out at me as I read through Sirach (aka: Ecclesiasticus).

Run away from sin like you would from a snake: If you go near it, it will bite you. Its teeth are lion’s teeth, destroying a person’s life. (Sirach 21.2)

People who are afraid to act are like clumps of cow manure; those who pick it up will shake off their hand. (Sirach 22.2)

Don’t grow accustomed to saying coarse things because to do so is to engage in sinful speech. (Sirach 23.13)

How beautiful is sound judgment in gray-haired women and finding good advice in elderly men! (Sirach 25.4)

The husband of a good wife is favored, and the length of his life will be doubled. A courageous wife will make her husband happy, and he will complete his years in peace. … A loudmouthed and talkative wife is like a battle trumpet sounding an attack. The spirit of the man who lives under such conditions lives perpetually in the chaos of the battlefield. (Sirach 26.1-2,27)

“Human reasoning says, ‘Take care of it now. Bring about justice by your own hand. Something must be done immediately.’ Divine reasoning says, ‘I’ll take care of it. In my time.’ Do we have enough faith to wait on the Lord?”

“Every pastor’s family is at risk at becoming disenchanted, even hostile to that church and ministry that so often takes their father away. How can a pastor help, not hinder his children to grow in love for the church?”

“… 17% read religion-oriented blogs once a month or more … 57% of online adults under age 35 use the Internet for religion, compared to 48% who are 35 to 49 years old, 36% who are 50 to 64, and 31% who are 65 or older …”

“One enemy of good reading is confusion about which mode of attention is appropriate to a given book. I am certain that this very confusion makes it almost impossible for anyone to read—genuinely to read—the Bible. In both the Hebrew and Christian Bibles, narrative and other more-or-less literary forms are dominant, which seems to call for a strategy of reading for understanding similar to what one might use in an encounter with, say, Homer; but these books’ status as sacred text suggests, to many modern readers anyway, that their purpose is to provide information about God and God’s relation to human beings. “Strip-mining” the Psalms, or the Song of Solomon, or even the more elevated discourses of the Gospel of John, “for relevant content” might not seem like a promising strategy, but many generations of pastors have pushed it pretty hard, as though the Bible were no more than an awkwardly coded advice manual.” (Alan Jacobs, The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction, p.99)

“Two weeks ago I was asked by our Psychology Club to share a few thoughts for their Club chapel. The theme for the chapel this semester is to share about characters in the Bible who have affected or inspired your spiritual walk. I selected the unnamed concubine from Judges 19. Judges 19 is, perhaps, the most horrific episode in the Bible. I expect this may be the first, last and only time the students hear a message from this text. I started by reading the whole chapter. When I ended it was pretty quiet in the room.”

“Show me someone who keeps whining about not singing enough worship songs, or “being fed,” or doesn’t want the church to focus on evangelism, or missions, or feeding the poor, or singing secular music on Sunday, and I’ll show you a freakishly immature Christian. The sad, and sometimes scary thing, is that 99 times out of 100 they simply don’t realize it.”

“According to the economy of the world, with its measures of greatness, to be the twelve is to be exemplary, in the place to lead, to exclude others from leadership, to stand close to Jesus and guard the gates of who else can draw near. And to the extent that we look to Jesus’ selection of them, and the apparent marginalization of the women, as paradigmatic for male leadership in the church, we show ourselves to be people whose minds have not yet been transformed by the very story to which we are appealing.”

“… sociologist Bradley Wright cites statistics that show evangelical Christians to be one of the most racist groups in America. To be sure, only a minority of evangelicals fall into this category, but relative to other Christian groups as well as to non-Christians evangelical Christians are the most likely to hold a candidate’s race against them in a political election. And as most people know, evangelicals tend to vote Republican and are plentiful across the American South. This racist strain in southern Christianity greatly disturbs me as I encounter it frequently where I live. So what changed in the South? … The American Civil Rights Movement.”

“Pray big prayers. Think beyond the hospital visitation list. Pray prayers that reflect God’s sovereignty over the whole world. Pray for the spread of the gospel in foreign nations; pray for an end to human trafficking worldwide; pray for religious freedoms to spring up in oppressive regimes.”

“You see, we teach that our songs and prayers and sermons and fellowship are all “worship.” We go to extravagant lengths to make the “worship” meaningful. But, if we have not prepared the gift long before we arrive, all we are doing is manipulating our fickle human emotions with gimmicks, whether we use instruments, praise teams or simple acappella singing.”

“More people live alone now than at any other time in history. In prosperous American cities — Atlanta, Denver, Seattle, San Francisco and Minneapolis — 40 percent or more of all households contain a single occupant.”

“This is written from the perspective of a visitor. Last year, my family and I took the entire month of February away from local ministry and traveled to various congregations, both near and far, and enjoyed some time visiting. We learned much about the attitudes of congregations towards visitors and it is reflected in the words below.”

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who I am

David Smith is the name. I'm a Christian, a husband, a father, and a grandfather. I'm privileged to serve as the preaching minister with the Missouri Street Church of Christ (MoSt Church) in Baytown, Texas.

disclaimer

The views and opinions expressed on this blog are those of my own, David Smith, and the views of others. They do not, and are not, intended to represent or reflect any of the individual, or collective, beliefs of the church family of which I am a part, the Missouri Street Church of Christ in Baytown, Texas.